"Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The "Rick Roll", probably one of the best-known memesnote came from 4chan, now pretty much universal. The Rick Roll itself consists of inserting the song into situations where it doesn't belong, originally by claiming a link was to a page pertinent to the discussion, but in fact led to a video of "Never Gonna Give You Up" on Youtube.

Someone registered a domain that sounds similar to the Church of Happyology and put up a copy of their site, the only change being that the original video (naming various anonymous as terrorists/hate criminals/part of a conspiracy between the German psychiatrists and the Marcabian invasion fleet) was replaced by a Rickroll.

In Family Guy, Brian performs this on-stage in front of a crowd during his time travels with Peter after he fixes the past to preserve his marriage with Lois. However, not really a true Rickroll, as it was probably meant to be played.

There's a brilliant one of a Beaker performance on The Muppet Show turned into a rickroll.

Gunter gleeben rocken rollen! note The utterly nonsensical counting-in at the start of the song, done because the engineer was bored with "One, two, three, four"; it's appeared on numerous other songs since, most notably "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)".

Fall Out Boy spawned "I'M A LITTLE MAN, I'M ALSO EVIL, ALSO INTO CATS!"note Patrick Stump, the lead singer, is extremely Mondegreen-prone, something the fandom regularly jokes about. However, this particular Mondegreen, a mishearing of the line "I'm a leading man, and the lies I weave are oh so intricate" from their single 'This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race', blew up on the internet, to the point where Cobra Starship singer Gabe Saporta noted that he, like Patrick, was into cats in an interview.[[/note]

The Insane Clown Posse's "Miracles", with such charms as "Fucking magnets, how do they work?" and "Theres magic everywhere in this bitch".note The song has gained the band an even more unsightly reputation due to its dismissal of science in favor of "miracles". At best it's seen as a comedy.

CRRRRAAAWWWWWLLIIIINGGGG IINNNNN MYYYY SKIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN! THESE WOOOOOUUUUNNNNDSSS THEY WILLLLLL NOT HEEEAAALLLLLLLL...note The song has become synonymous with Wangst. Wangsters frequently find the chorus quoted at them.

Loituma's cover of the Finnish folk song Ievan Polkka. It got combined with a gif of a scene from Bleach which resulted in the Leek Spin or Loituma Girl meme.

My Chemical Romance, "Welcome To The Black Parade": WHEN I WAS...note Originated on 4chan. The thread usually starts with a picture of Gerard Way dramatically reaching out, accompanied by this phrase. The next poster finishes the sentence.

An inverted version of this meme often shows up on Tumblr. Users would post the first line to a song and then subsequent reblogs would continue the song... until, inevitably, someone would derail it with "to join the black parade."

Neutral Milk Hotel, In The Aeroplane Over the Seanote Rather than one specific song, the entire album is considered a meme among certain circles, partly due to Jeff Mangum's strange singing voice. He usually sings at the higher end of his register and rather loudly, which puts a lot of strain on his voice, making him sound out of key, even though he's usually hitting notes.

"I LOVE YOU JESUS CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIST!"

"SEMEN STAINS THE MOUNTAINTOPS!"note Unintentionally funny lyrics when taken out of context, especially given the way the former is sung.

"Prepare your mountaintops" note A crossover between the previous line and the "prepare your anus" image macros.

The cover art◊note The cover art is the most frequently posted image on /mu/; many threads will use it as an image despite the post having nothing to do with the album and it is frequently ironically posted in threads about entirely different genres. There are also many parodies of the cover art, usually combining it with the cover of another "/mu/core" album.

"It's a potato." note Whether the woman in the picture's head is a drum or potato is debated. Word of God claims it's a drum.

Napalm Death's "You Suffer".note This "song" has gained popularity on YouTube and elsewhere for being literally the shortest song ever made.

Justin Timberlake's delivery of the song's title line has resulted into a yearly meme that pops up on April 30 with "It's Gonna Be MAY" pasted on top of a picture of him. And yes, theyknow◊about it.

Hilariously enough, the meme even put the song briefly back on the sales charts.

"Shine On, You Crazy Diamond" The song itself. note Originally a darkly ironic plea to former bandmate Syd Barrett, who they knew was beyond help, it's become just a way of declaring someone Crazy Awesome.

"Another Brick in the Wall": "We don't need no education..." note While the song was simply Pink further shutting himself off from the world, students around the world have since used it as an anti-school anthem.

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you eat your pudding if you don't eat your meat?! You! Stand still, laddie! note This spoken-word coda to the song is also memorable, especially due to the ridiculous Scottish accent it's spoken in.

OPPAN* Not "oppa", contrary to popular belief. "Oppa" means "brother" (the brother being PSY himself in the song), while "oppan" means "brother is" GANGNAM STYLE!note The song became a massive hit in 2012. Memes and parodies popped up everywhere, frequently involving the unique dances from the video.

I see a little silhouetto of a man, Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango...note Quote any line from this song on the internet. Spontaneous (textual) singalongs ensue.

Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Free Bird"note This one predates the internet. "Play Freebird!" became a common joke request at concerts, regardless of the performer.

In Finland the equivalent joke is "Soittakaa Paranoid!" ("Play Paranoid!", requesting the song by Black Sabbath), first orginated as a joke by a reporter for a local music magazine, since then spiraled out of control. At least two notable bands have also recorded songs called "Paranoid" to have something to play if someone cracks the joke.

The original memetic joke/heckle request was The Allman Brothers Band's Whipping Post, which is even longer than live performances of Free Bird, and would use one entire side of an LP. Not that it isn't good. The album the Ur Example appears on placed on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time at number 49.

Guitar Hero 2 uses this song for the Final Boss. "You always knew this would happen. The audience is calling for Free Bird."

Tommy Tutone, "867-5309/Jenny" note The popularity of the song and the repetition of the number in the chorus led to a rash of people dialing 867-5309 in various zip-codes.

A similar situation occurred in the mid-2000s when rapper Mike Jones decided it was a good idea to put his number (281-330-8004) into all his songs. Fortunately he included the area code, so the only phone that had to be shut off was his own.

Trinidad Jame$, "All Gold Everything"

"Popped a molly, I'm sweatin' — WOO!"note This line, referring to the side-effects of MDMA/molly/Ecstasy, quickly gained popularity as the best part of a So Bad, It's Good song. The video (see below) helped a lot too.

The musician Samwell became momentarily famous for the Camp Gay song "What What, In The Butt?," which led to more slash/yaoi parodies than could be counted generally consisting of the song overlaid on a particularly Ho Yay laden clip compilation or the like, and which itself even appeared on South Park.

"Crank That" by Soulja Boy became a memetic Ear Worm for a fair bit of 2007-08. It also produced a lot of "Crank That" parodies, especially "Kosha Boy", ''Crank Dat [1] and "Crank Dat Spiderman".

Soulja Boy's foray into odd, rambling songs allegedly inspired by anime produced a couple of others:"BitchI looklikeGoku," "Bitch I look like Gohan, smokin' up that marijuana" with a goofy Gohan face, and the song "Anime", consisting of lyrics like :Lookin' likeDeath Note" has given us "Anime, Annie-May, I'd fuck dat bitch, any day".

"Smoke Weed Everyday", the last line of the song, is often remixed with various other items. Combined with a .gif of Snoop Dogg dancing in his video for "Drop it Like it's Hot", various weed-themed remixes have appeared.

Vaporwave, to an extent, especially this song. Once the genre started getting more attention, it didn't take long for people to start making remixes and joke mashups with it.

"The aesthetic".note Essentially, Windows 95 imagery, weird promotional advertising artwork reminiscent of the mid-80's/early 90's, Gratuitous Japanese characters, and malls. That is "the aesthetic". Often used derisively by people who think vaporwave is made and enjoyed by pretentious hipsters to mock them.

"It's just Diana Ross slowed down."note Indeed, the above song is comprised of slowed-down loops from Diana Ross' "It's Your Move". This phrase and variations thereof are said either as a reaction to said song or as an answer to people asking what vaporwave is.

"I Love, I Love, I Love My Wife - But Oh! You Kid!" was "written" by Harry Von Tilzer in 1909.

It soon spawned countless knick-knacks, imitations, parodies, cartoons captioned with the song's hook, and a backlash by both Moral Guardians and people who were just sick of it. The song and phrase turned out to have a long shelf life; H. L. Mencken was complaining about it in 1921, and it's been referenced in works created many years after that. More information.

"98 PERCENT COMPLETE" became a meme in the X Japan fandom, as a result of Yoshiki Hayashi repeatedly stating that the first new album by X Japan in more than 20 years is "98 percent complete" on Twitter since 2010.

Yoshiki himself produced two minor memes related to him via his twitter: the Fan Community Nickname of "nurses," and many nurse-themed fan creations, and his love for bananas (which even managed to get noticed by Dole to the point that they mailed him several crates of bananas). Before that, there was the "Rice Monster" meme, created from a post he made on his then Myspace blog about a nightmare he'd had of being eaten by a "rice monster" as a result of a special rice diet he was on to get in shape for the band reunion. There's also the meme of him being a vampire.

Another related to X Japan is the Heath X Fernandes Cargo Ship, which resulted from Heath seeming to have an orgasm onstage at Lollapalooza 2010 due to the vibrations of his bass.

A short-lived meme happened in the '00s, "Lick pens," created by a famous lyrics translations page's attempt to avoid being banned by their ISP or attracting "enlargement" spammers, by removing the "i" from one word in the original lyrics for Stab Me In The Back. This meme is actually a way to tell how long someone's been a fan of the band for real - usually someone who references having heard of the meme has been around since at least 2005, and likely earlier. Unless they just read about it here.

Ylvis's The Fox became this within a day or two of the music video being put up on Youtube. The chorus is the most memetic part of the song. note The comedic song consists of the singer wondering what noises fox make. The chorus is increasingly incoherent gibberish such as "Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding"

The whole song.note It features cryptic lyrics about racism, with the phrase "Chocolate Rain" comprising every other line and music that boils down to the same four-line stanza repeated over...and over...and over... It went viral after being posted to YouTube.

ScrewAttack once parodied this in their Shitty-Ass Game of the Year awards to explain just how bad Vampire Rain really was.

When nominated for the 360 SAGY: "Vampire Rain...! It's so boring you might kill yourself. Vampire Rain...! It's supposed to be like Splinter Cell. Vampire Rain...! Its gameplay is downright horrible. Vampire Rain...! No redeeming qualities at all!"

Winning the 360 SAGY: "Vampire Rain...! Its gameplay is like a bad joke. Vampire Rain...! You gave it over half of the votes. Chocolate Rain...! The song is not half as bad as the game. Vampire Rain...! Will make you want to sell your 360!"

I move away from the mic to breathe in.note A caption that appears in the video. The internet ran with it.

The Dancing Baby meme: One of the older memes that have since fallen out of favor, a GIF of a CGI dancing baby set to either The Macarena or The Blue Suedes' Hooked on a Feeling (the latter inspired by Ally McBeal). In the old days stuff like that pretty much went around via e-mail or appeared on websites.

Memes not tied to a specific song

The Twelve Days of Christmas: "...and a partridge in a pear tree." note Used to cap off a particularly bizarre Long List and lampshade how silly it sounds.

When you download MP3s, you're downloading COMMUNISM!note Explanation:Making fun of the obsession with Digital Piracy Is Evil. Also, many fans are convinced the record companies just do this because we might like an independent artist.

Everything except country and rap.note Stock response of someone being asked what their favorite type of music is. You've probably encountered it at least once.

ONETWOTHREEFOUR!note Common among noise fans. It's inspired by The Gerogerigegege, who made several albums and EPs whose tracks were all short, loud blasts of noise separated by quick countoffs.

Senzuri!note Also inspired by the above musician—several tracks and albums feature the word in their title, and masturbation was a recurring theme in his works, both live and in-studio.

"I hate how Pavement took music so seriously."note A rather popular YouTube comment on Pavement videos. Naturally, this comment is ironic, as their music videos were usually silly and some of their lyrics are obviously not too serious either (for example, "What about the voice of Geddy Lee? / How did it get so high? / I wonder if he speaks like an ordinary guy / 'I know him and he does!'"

"Darude - Sandstorm".Explanation A response to (usually YouTube) comments asking what the name of a song is. In some places, it mutated to become the answer of every question ever asked, ever.The Fine Brothers even did a YouTubers Reactepisode on it.

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